In a soft voice with gasping and sobs, Stephanie Munizza told Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning she's sorry for what happened, as she entered a guilty plea Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter.

Munizza shot her cousin, Josh Poremski, in the head, killing him on Halloween night, after he handed his gun to her, told her it wasn't loaded and challenged her as to whether she could pull the trigger if she was in danger.

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"She's devastated. She is a shell of a human being," said Munizza's defense attorney, David Shrager, who struck a deal with prosecutors to withdraw a third-degree homicide charge. "I'm not a psychologist but it seems to me that she has the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

"She loved her cousin. She never meant for this to happen, and she is wracked by guilt and grief and is barely able to function."

The shooting happened at Poremski's home in Upper St. Clair, during a late party of shots and beers around a fire pit with family and friends.

"On more than one situation during the course of the evening, the victim had told my client that the gun was not loaded. That is to say there was not a round in the chamber although the clip was in the firearm," Shrager said. "The firearm was handled by many people that evening and people were drinking and looking at the firearm. We don't know who chambered the round. We do know it wasn't my client."

A plea agreement of involuntary manslaughter, a misdemeanor, indicates that both sides agree the deadly shooting was reckless and grossly negligent but was not an intentional killing.

Manning sentenced Munizza to five years of supervised probation in her home state of Missouri. She will not serve time in prison unless she she violates terms of the probation.

Last month, Poremski's widow said that the entire family supports Munizza.

"I know it was an accident. I am 100, 150 percent sure that it was an accident, or I wouldn't be here," Stephanie Poremski said after a November court hearing.

Shrager praised Poremski's family.

"They have only given her support and love and forgiveness, and as I said, I am very humbled by their compassion," he said.

Munizza has been living in the Pittsburgh area with the family of the victim since the shooting under court-supervised electronic home monitoring. They believe it was an accident and did not want her to be prosecuted.